Key Takeaways
- Magnesium supports nearly every activity in the body, from energy production to nerve and muscle function and sleep quality. Yet more than half of U.S. adults don't get enough of it.
- Twitching under the eye, frequent leg cramps, chronic fatigue, and poor sleep can be signs that you're low on magnesium.
- The loose stools and diarrhea many people get from magnesium usually come from unabsorbed magnesium pulling water into the gut, not from a sensitive stomach.
- More isn't better. For general health, about 150–200 mg a day is plenty, and doses that max out the 350 mg upper intake level raise the risk of taking in too much.
- YoungLong Vegan Rice Magnesium packs 160 mg of magnesium from brown rice into a small, easy-to-swallow tablet. Made from naturally derived rice magnesium, it has very few reports of digestive discomfort, and its Halal and vegan certifications make it a good fit for those following a plant-based diet.
There was one question I used to get asked a lot when I worked at a pharmacy. Have you ever experienced symptoms like these after taking magnesium?
"I've been feeling tired lately, and the skin under my eye keeps twitching, so I bought some magnesium. But for some reason, every time I take it, I get a mild stomachache and loose stools (diarrhea). Is my gut just sensitive?"
To get straight to the point, your gut isn't the problem. The real cause is most likely the type of magnesium you're taking.
Most of the low-cost magnesium you commonly see on store shelves passes out of the body without being absorbed.
Along the way, it pulls water into the intestines, which causes loose stools or diarrhea.
In the end, these differences come down to the "type" of magnesium.
Absorption rates and how hard magnesium is on your stomach vary slightly depending on its type.
But when it comes time to choose a product, many people don't consider how it works and just compare low prices, high doses, or brand recognition.
In the end, which magnesium you choose determines the results you get.
Today, I'll walk you through how to choose.
Contents
- Why Getting Enough Magnesium Matters
- Does Magnesium Commonly Cause Side Effects?
- How to Choose the Right Magnesium for You
1. Why Getting Enough Magnesium Matters
Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the human body,
and it's found in bones, muscles, body fluids, and inside cells.
Simply put, it's a nutrient involved in energy production and protein metabolism, and it supports nearly every activity in the body, from bone health and maintaining nerve and muscle function to sleep quality.
It's involved in far more processes than even vitamin C or omega-3s, yet it's also a nutrient whose importance isn't widely known.
The problem is that the body can't produce magnesium on its own.
That's why it's a nutrient you need to get consistently through your diet, yet about 53.3% of U.S. adults reportedly don't get enough magnesium.
In other words, more than half of U.S. adults aren't getting enough magnesium.
Why Are We Low on Magnesium?
It's because modern daily life itself quickly drains our magnesium.
Coffee and alcohol act as diuretics, flushing magnesium out in the urine.
We're also eating more processed foods that are low in magnesium, and chronic stress uses up magnesium faster as the body works to calm the nervous system.
In the end, we now live in an environment where it's hard to get enough magnesium from diet alone.
So when you're low on magnesium, your body sends out a variety of signals.
The most common sign is twitching under the eye (facial twitching).
When magnesium runs low, calcium levels also become unstable during nerve signaling, which causes muscles to twitch slightly.
Other symptoms like the ones below may also appear:
- Frequent leg cramps
- Frequent tightness in the shoulders or calves
- Chronic fatigue that doesn't go away even after plenty of sleep
- Sleep problems, such as light sleep and frequent waking
- Irritability over even small things
- Frequent headaches or menstrual cramps
If two or three or more of these symptoms show up together, it's worth considering a magnesium deficiency.
2. Does Magnesium Commonly Cause Side Effects?
The side effects people complain about most after taking magnesium supplements are loose stools and diarrhea.
The cause is simple: the magnesium we take isn't properly absorbed in the gut.
Magnesium isn't a nutrient that's naturally absorbed very well to begin with.
Only about 1/10 of it is absorbed, and the rest passes right out of the body.
This unabsorbed magnesium stays in the intestines and pulls in water, increasing the amount of water in the gut. As a result, stools become loose, which can easily lead to diarrhea.
Because diarrhea is a common side effect of taking magnesium, many people are reluctant to take it.
Also, getting too much magnesium can be a problem as well.
Taking more than the recommended dose of magnesium over a long period can raise blood magnesium levels abnormally high, which can lead to hypermagnesemia.
In severe cases, it can cause symptoms such as shortness of breath, cardiac arrest, and low blood pressure.
In our daily lives, we already get a certain amount of magnesium from our meals.
If you add a supplement that maxes out the upper intake level on top of that every day, your risk of taking in too much goes up accordingly.
That's why, when choosing a magnesium supplement, it's important to pick a dose that safely fills in only what you're missing, rather than simply chasing the highest dose.
3. How to Choose the Right Magnesium for You
As I mentioned earlier, a higher dose of magnesium doesn't make it a better product.
On top of that, absorption, stomach irritation, and how you feel the effects all differ depending on the type of magnesium.
That's why, when choosing magnesium, knowing which form of magnesium suits you is far more important than simply looking for the product with the highest magnesium content.
How to Choose 1) Magnesium Content
For adults, the tolerable upper intake level for magnesium is 350 mg per day. Because magnesium may be included in various other supplements, you should always check that you aren't doubling up on it.
Many magnesium products on the market are packed with the full 350 mg upper intake level. When supplements are added to the magnesium you get from food, your intake can end up well above the recommended daily amount.
Taking too much magnesium can cause side effects such as diarrhea or hypermagnesemia, and side effects have actually been reported in several studies. So if you're taking magnesium for general health, about 150–200 mg is plenty.
- Severe magnesium deficiency → 250–350 mg recommended
- General health maintenance → 150–200 mg is appropriate ★
How to Choose 2) Magnesium Type ★
Let's take a look at the "type of magnesium," one of the most important factors when choosing a magnesium supplement.
Just as the metal used determines the quality of a piece of jewelry, the same goes for magnesium.
There are many types of magnesium on the market, but explaining every one of them would make this post too long, so I'll cover only a few distinctive ones.
Type 1) Inorganic Magnesium Salts
- Magnesium Oxide, Magnesium Chloride
(1) Advantages of Inorganic Magnesium Salts
Most magnesium supplements use "magnesium oxide," a type of inorganic magnesium salt. More than 90% of magnesium products on the market use this form.
Because magnesium oxide is an inexpensive raw material, it's sometimes considered a low-grade form of magnesium. But as a commonly used ingredient, it also has its advantages.
The biggest advantage of magnesium oxide is that, even if you take a tablet of the same weight, you get a higher amount of magnesium than with other forms.
While most organic magnesium forms contain 6–30% magnesium, magnesium oxide contains as much as 60% magnesium at the same mass.
For example, if you swallow a 500 mg tablet, you'd get only about 30 mg of magnesium from an organic magnesium salt, but about 300 mg from magnesium oxide.
No matter how low the absorption rate is, there's no beating sheer volume. If you push enough of it through, more of it is bound to get absorbed.
(2) Disadvantages of Inorganic Magnesium Salts
Magnesium oxide is an insoluble form of magnesium that doesn't dissolve well in water, so it needs enough stomach acid to dissolve.
Because of this, its absorption rate is low, and it stays in the intestines longer, which raises the concentration of magnesium in the gut.
As a result, osmotic pressure in the intestines goes up and more water is drawn into the gut. Excess water builds up in the intestines, which can lead to side effects such as diarrhea.
In fact, a considerable number of people experience diarrhea after taking it.
*Examples of Magnesium Oxide Supplements on the Market
Also, most magnesium oxide products are high in magnesium, so a single tablet often reaches the daily upper intake level.
In particular, if you already get enough magnesium from a regular diet or take a multivitamin that contains magnesium, I don't recommend high-dose magnesium oxide.
Type 2) Organic Magnesium Salts
(1) Advantages of Organic Magnesium Salts
- Magnesium gluconate, magnesium glycinate, etc.
Organic magnesium forms, in which magnesium is bound to organic compounds such as amino acids, have the advantage of higher absorption because they use peptide pathways in the intestines.
Unlike magnesium oxide, organic magnesium and chelated magnesium dissolve well in water.
Thanks to this, magnesium is absorbed smoothly even when stomach acid is low.
Also, because they're absorbed well even at the same dose, they tend to cause fewer diarrhea side effects.
(2) Disadvantages of Organic Magnesium Salts
Organic magnesium is made by binding bulky amino acids to magnesium atoms, so the amount of magnesium that can fit into each tablet is relatively low.
As I explained in the magnesium oxide section, organic magnesium contains only about 6–30% magnesium.
Even if you take a 500 mg tablet, the actual amount of magnesium you get is only about 30 mg.
So no matter how high the absorption rate is, the magnesium content itself is low, which inevitably limits how much you can take in.
Organic magnesium products tend to come in bulky tablets, which can make them hard to swallow.
If you look at the recommended daily serving, you'll often need to take 1–4 tablets about the size of a quarter. That's how many it takes to get roughly the same amount of magnesium as one magnesium oxide tablet.
On top of that, organic magnesium salts tend to be relatively expensive.
Considering the cost versus the benefit, I generally don't go out of my way to recommend them.
Type 3) Naturally Derived Magnesium ★
- Rice magnesium
(1) Advantages of Naturally Derived Magnesium
A leading example of naturally derived magnesium is rice magnesium, which is extracted from brown rice.
Because it comes from rice, a staple food eaten around the world, your body's cells don't recognize the nutrient itself as a foreign substance, the way they might with synthetic nutrients. So it's gentle on the body, and it tends to be well absorbed even without an organic salt attached.
As a result, at the same amount of magnesium, it's absorbed just as well as organic magnesium.
In the same vein, because it's absorbed so well, very little magnesium is left behind in the intestines, so diarrhea occurs less often.
If your gut tends to be healthy or you don't have constipation, magnesium extracted from brown rice (rice) can be a good option.
There are many reviews from people who avoided magnesium because magnesium oxide gave them diarrhea, saying they can take naturally derived rice magnesium consistently without the stomach issues they had before.
*Examples of Rice-Derived Magnesium Supplements on the Marke
When I looked at rice magnesium products on the market, their magnesium content ranged from 100 to 160 mg.
About 150 mg of magnesium a day is an amount with little risk of excess intake, and it's also unlikely to cause hypermagnesemia.
If your everyday goal for taking magnesium is general health, I recommend about 150 mg of magnesium.
Also, the number of people following a plant-based diet has been growing recently.
Organic magnesium salts mainly use amino acids extracted from animals, which makes them difficult for vegetarians to take.
On the other hand, rice magnesium is a naturally derived magnesium extracted from plants such as brown rice.
Because vegetarians can take it too, it has the added advantage of offering more choices.
(2) Disadvantages of Naturally Derived Magnesium
Because it's a naturally derived ingredient that was developed only recently, it's priced relatively higher than magnesium oxide or organic magnesium.
If a supplement you take for your health ends up disrupting your daily life with side effects, you may actually be better off not taking it at all.
That's why I believe naturally derived rice magnesium, which has fewer side effects, can be helpful.
What Makes YoungLong's Vegan Rice Magnesium Different
We've covered the different types of magnesium and their side effects. Magnesium is an essential mineral for everyday health, but the form you choose can make all the difference in how well it works and how your body handles it.
So why does YoungLong recommend rice magnesium?
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Gentle on the stomach: Made from naturally derived vegan rice magnesium, with very few reports of diarrhea or digestive discomfort.
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High potency for rice magnesium: Each serving delivers 160mg, one of the higher amounts among rice-based magnesium supplements.
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Sourced from brown rice: Our magnesium comes from brown rice, not regular white rice.
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Well absorbed: A naturally derived ingredient with excellent bioavailability.
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Small, easy-to-swallow tablets: Comfortable to take, even if you usually struggle with pills.
- Tested for safety: Screened for pesticides and heavy metals, and certified vegan.
That's why it's a great place to start if other magnesium supplements have upset your stomach before. Made by pharmacists, it takes the worry out of taking magnesium.
Rather than simply reaching for the highest dose, the most important thing is choosing a form that fits your body and your reason for taking it. We hope this guide helps you find the right magnesium supplement for you.
